Sunday, July 11, 2010

Mental health a growing concern after Gulf spill

Mental health a growing concern after Gulf spill

Reuters – Shrimpers separate their catch at a processing plant at Joshua's Marina in Buras, Louisiana May 17, …

By Matthew Bigg Matthew Bigg – Sun Jul 11, 1:16 am ET

VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Gulf Coast native Kindra Arnesen is so anxious about the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill she is packing up her family and leaving town.
"Stress? Dude my clothes are falling off me (because of weight loss). The level of stress here is tremendous. My husband has aged 10 years in two months," Arnesen said on Friday as she loaded possessions into a van outside her trailer home in Venice.
Fears are growing of an increase in stress-related illness and mental health problems from the BP Plc spill. Anecdotal evidence abounds but mental health officials say they lack data about the scale and scope of suffering.
Arnesen recently set up the Wives of Commercial Fishermen network to respond to pressures in the community. Two days ago, a friend told her he was so upset about his failure to get hired by BP's cleanup program he was considering suicide.
Arnesen has her own worries. Her husband cannot work as a shrimper because authorities have closed swathes of Gulf waters to fishing and her children and other relatives have fallen sick from what she believes are airborne toxins from the leak.
"The mental health impact here ... (and) the level of uncertainty is taking a toll on people and that's a huge, huge concern," Arnesen said. She declined to say where she and her two children would settle but said her husband would stay behind to work for BP on the cleanup.
Thousands of Gulf Coast fishermen face financial ruin because of the spill. Some say the stress is worse than after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Then it was possible to get back to work despite the destruction. Now it is impossible to say when waters will reopen especially since oil continues to gush into the Gulf.
At the same time, many fishermen now rely on BP's cleanup program as a financial lifeline and while that has provided a windfall for a few, others have yet to find employment.
FINANCIAL STRAIN
"We hear it over and over again," said environmental scientist Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, a nonprofit group with deep community roots. "It is the stress because of the possibility of not being able to earn a living and pay their bills."
Some experts caution it is possible to falsely perceive an uptick in a health phenomenon just by looking for it. But crisis counseling teams working with Gulf fishermen say anecdotal reports point to increased anger and anxiety and "a lot of marital discord," said Acquanetta Knight, director of policy and planning at the Alabama Department of Mental Health.
Data on the problems should be available in the next two weeks, she told reporters on Friday.
Residents suffering mental distress may hesitate to seek help because of a fiercely individualistic culture and strong ethic of self-reliance on the Gulf, where many earn their living working long hours alone on the water.
"This is sometimes a population that's not so accustomed to utilizing traditional services," said Pamela Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Hyde said her agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is looking at national suicide and domestic violence hotlines and state mental health agency reports to find data.
Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi state mental health agencies have requested millions of dollars from BP to help pay for expanded mental health monitoring and services.
In a June 28 letter to the energy company, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals asked for $10 million and warned that health effects from the spill will be an "ongoing challenge."
The department first requested funds for mental health care on May 28. BP has not yet responded to the request.
(Additional reporting by Emma Ashburn in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

7 comments:

It is soo sad, it is amazing how few people care or can even wrap their minds around the fact that this is going to effect everyone in one way or another. In the U.S with it going into another great depression and this is the cherry on top. Many of us just keep sending this info out and supporting people like you and Kindra all we can. Much love + thank-you for all you do.

The wise thing to do NOW is to leave the area and settle elsewhere - anywhere will be better! The situation will only get worse - before it becomes unbearable. There will be far fewer options for anyone who waits too long! I know this is a very hard decision to make when your whole life is tied to the Gulf but many people have had to make that kind of decision in the past - the Jews who saw Nazism coming in the late 1930s in Germany, for example. The smart ones left before it was too late. This is not running from your responsibility - this is running for your life and the lives of your children!

July 14th, and no hurricanes have hit yet, when they do, the entire gulf coast will be covered in oily water, filled with dispersant-oil compounds and toxins. The use of dispersant is the ultimate problem, it's so bad for cellular biological processes that we see animals dying just from the rain-containing dispersant volatiles.. the USA is going to see big events when the hurricanes hit. already the gulf coast is a deadzone, Obama, can't you do anything to stop BP from using dispersants? geez..

Who is BP Slick

John L. Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper, located in Tuscaloosa County Alabama. I am the enforcement and advocacy branch of the Friends of Hurricane Creek.
Photographer / videographer, I have dedicated my life to exposing the truth about pollution and lack of accountability by the industries and agencies who use our waterways as waste conduits.